Bring Our Gods Home! (Retrieve India’s national-treasures from across the globe)

The Loot of India’s Gods!

The organized theft of India’s artistic heritage is perhaps the biggest scandal of modern India. According to experts, around 20,000 idols, sculptures and other antiquities have been stolen and sold in foreign countries since 1980 (this excludes colonial era loot). The estimated market value of these antiquities is over US$10 billion although many of these artifacts are priceless from a cultural or religious perspective.

How India is looted

It important to note that the systematic plunder of national treasures is not due to petty local thieves; but part of a well-oiled international network run by sophisticated criminal-organizations. They identify specific pieces, hack them from temples and forts, buy-off officials, smuggle across borders, use well-known auction houses and even have prominent art experts on their pay-rolls.

The Bad News

Most other countries have an aggressive policy to “demand their national-treasures back”. India does not! A damning CAG report from 2013 states that India had not recovered *even one* piece of stolen-heritage between 2001 & 2012.

The Good News

Citizen's initiatives like the India Pride Project (Twitter: @IndiaPrideProj) have begun to track down many of these national-treasures; and are building awareness about how India’s heritage has been looted. A handful of these stolen-treasures were personally handed back to Prime Minister Modi over the last year by the German and Australian premiers.

However, hundreds more remain in the hands of authorities in North America, Europe and Australia. Their repatriation has been delayed for years due to indifference and slow-paperwork on the Indian side.

In short, our national-treasures languish in foreign lands, waiting to come back! Ask the Government of India to Bring Our Gods Home!

For more details see:

Watch this short video for a quick overview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq6b07Ln0Pc

For what IS being done, read this:

http://swarajyamag.com/culture/how-smuggled-indian-art-brought-home

For what NEEDS to be done, read this:

http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/et-commentary/india-must-start-working-to-reverse-plunder-of-our-national-artistic-heritage/

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About India Pride Project (IPP)

IPP is a privately-run volunteer-initiative that is restoring India’s stolen-heritage.

The three main objectives of IPP are:

1. Recovering stolen Indian heritage (smuggled all across the globe),

2. Creating mass-awareness about the looting/destruction of India’s heritage, and

3. Creating appetite in government-agencies to bring heritage-recovery back on the agenda.

Contact: buzz@ipp.org.in

Website: www.IPP.org.in

Twitter: @IndiaPrideProj

Tag on Twitter/Facebook with: #BOGH or #BringOurGodsHome